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Friday, February 22, 2008

"She's the captain."

"There are three things to remember about being a starship captain: keep your shirt tucked in, go down with the ship, and never abandon a member of your crew."-Captain Kathryn Janeway, Star Trek: Voyager

I'm sad that I have now watched 54 of the 79 episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS, 1966-1969).

I decided to try the succeeding series in the Star Trek universe, but was disappointed after watching several episodes of the leaden Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG, 1987-1994). Attraction is like Velcro: there has to be both the clingy hooky bits and the receptive loopy bits. Lots of people love TNG, but there weren't any hooky bits for me.

So I was pleased when I watched the first episode of Star Trek: Voyager (VOY, 1995-2001), set some 100 years after the adventures of Kirk and his crew. The captain, Kathryn Janeway, is kind of Kirk-like: a bit of a pompous honeybear.

In the pilot episode, Janeway has to merge the crew of a Maquis ship into her Starfleet crew, since the Maquis ship is destroyed and both crews are stranded 75 years away from home. The Starfleeters are crewcut West Point types and the Maquis are James Dean rebel types, so this is a fun hook & loop set up, right from the start.

There's some friction between the crews, but the captain proves to the rebel commander, Chakotay (below), that she has the right stuff. One of the rebels asks Chakotay, "Who is she to order us around this way?" He replies, "She's the captain."

Chakotay seems like he'll be an intriguing second-in-command. I guess he's supposed to be Native American, but with his facial tattoo, he looks Maori, an aristocratic warrior people.

And there's even a real Vulcan, Tuvok (left), to add some cool. Gotta have a Vulcan.

I will never love anyone like I love Kirk and Spock, but I guess I can move on from a Star Trek captain whose shirt was always riding up to one whose shirt is always tucked in. Shirt out, shirt in--what does it matter? so long as they don't leave you behind on the planet.

2 comments:

I doubt I'll have that much to say about VOY--the thing with the original ST is that it's rooted in my sad youth...and its window on the politics and culture of the 1960s intrigues me.(But who knows? I've barely started with Janeway and Co.)

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